A Peek at Woburn Shoppers' Back-to-School Carts

 Hannah Amaro held up a black top over black and white patterned leggings in a local store and looked them over with a critical eye. She wants to wear what she sees on TV, on programs like “Shake it Up.”

 Her clothes “have to match, within reason,” Hannah’s mother, Cayman, told her daughter, who will be going into third grade at the Reeves School next month.

 Hannah’s sister, Chelsea, 18, doesn’t like brand name clothes, preferring to be more ”individual” in her clothes choices. But Chelsea does need supplies for her dorm, like a fridge. Chelsea will be a freshman at Salem State University.

 With city schools opening here in two weeks and a day, Woburn Patch talked to Hannah, Chelsea and their mother, of Woburn, and 10 other shoppers, mainly moms and children, during a rite of August—back- to-school shopping—at Target this past Friday to find out what they’ll be wearing and how they’ll be outfitting their dorms rooms.

New Duds for a New School Year

 A few students will be wearing all new clothes the first day of school.

 Suzanne Menenello plans to buy her daughter, 7, and son, 9, brand new outfits for the first day of school. Menenello’s daughter has picked out her own clothes “since she was 3,” Menenello, of Reading, said.  Her daughter is even thinking about what new earrings she’ll wear, she said, the first day of school. 

 Menenello’s son needs new clothes, she said, because he grew over the summer.

 “You could put anything on him,” she said.

 Rather than getting specific back-to-school clothes, Chris Gilligan’s son, who is going into first grade in Burlington, will get “whatever he needs for fall.” He decides what he wants to wear, she said. Gilligan tries to buy him one special item for school. This year it’s a backpack with a guitar on it.

 Marilyn Cahalane is buying her youngest child, age 5, a whole new outfit for school. Cahalane, who lives in Newburyport and works in Woburn, said her 14, 12 and 8-year-old will get what they need for their wardrobes.

Stretching Dollars

 Lisa Schuler described herself as “economical” in buying clothes for her two daughters, ages 12 and 7. Nevertheless, “The first day (of school) you want to feel good about yourself,” the Wilmington resident said.

 Taking a different tack in outfitting her three children for school, Jannene Levesque gets name-brand hand-me-downs for her two sons, ages 10 and 5. “It’s great,” the Winchester resident said. She shops primarily at Target, JC Penny and Sears, she said. Her daughter, who is 9, gets a few special items from stores like Abercrombie and Fitch and Justice as birthday presents.

 Another family faces a different issue in dressing for school:  uniforms. Yuderka Ortiz said the older of her four children, ages 16 and 12, wear khaki or blue pants and certain color shirts. That makes it easier, she said, to shop for them, “if you go early” while shirts are in good supply. The younger two, ages 8 and 5, wear school shirts. So the family only has to find jeans and sneakers for them. Boys are harder to buy clothes for, the Boston resident said, because they want more expensive things, like athletic jerseys and higher-priced sneakers.

Parents Try Different Strategies to Save

 Some back-to-school shoppers brought a shopping list with them. Like Heather Kealos, who’ll be starting at St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH. On her list: Bedding, a mattress pad, shower caddy, trash barrel and snacks. Her older sister helped her compile the list, the Wilmington resident said. She’s been “collecting” clothes for college all along, she said.

 “You need a raincoat,” interjected her mother, Eileeen.

 Instead of getting new outfits for the first day of school, college student Samantha Barkhouse said she usually got new clothes for picture day. Samantha bought some dorm supplies for school, like new bedding, because the bed linens she bought last year were “boring.” She’s going into sophomore year at Bridgewater State University.

 Her brother, Nikolas, a middle schooler, will get some new clothes, like jeans because, his mother, Suzanne said, he’s outgrown his others.

 “I always got new shoes for the start of school,” said Samantha, a resident of Bedford. “That’s all I cared about.”